Glide Rail , Help

[campthewestcoast]

On my 97 towlite, the screws keep backingout on the glides (the screws are striped out ,they no longer have any wood to grab to keep them in place)
I have tryed adding extra screws , liquid tight for threads and liquid nails to keep the screws in place with no luck. Its good for the first couple of miles, then the potholed roads of california start shaking the upper section of the trailer around causing the glides to loosen from the lower section, pulling the screws out. With the screws out , rising the top, it catches on the upper plastic glides and I can only raise it about 6 inches. I do have " soft walls " on the front right upper section which isn't helping matters. The biggest problem is the glide on the left front corner next to the water heater. Any ideas how to fix this problem?

 

[PopRichie77]

Have you tried longer screws and the next size, if your bed is in the front, you can possible screw thru and put a new piece of wood on the inside to screw into, bottom screws only as they will be under the bed and not show.

 

[campthewestcoast]

It looks like the only way to get to this location is to go down through the couch/ bed . I may remove the waterheater to make this repair easier from the outside. Has anyone done this repair before? Because of the space to work in and the clearance to the waterheater, What do you think of using stainless steel machine bolts and nuts with a piece of 18 gauge metal as a large fender washer rather than wood screws?

 

[PopRichie77]

If you have a front access door to the water heater to remove the water lines, then you can remove the water heater, if not then you have to remove the bed to get into that area. I haven't done this kind of repair but I have been under the bed for another reason, and it seems doable. The plate should be fine.

 

[campthewestcoast]

Glide Repair

I finialy had a chance to do one of my wintertime repairs, the rain stopped this weekend so I fixed the front lower glide rail. With the 2 lower screws coming loose on my 97 towlite (the wood was stripped out), I ended up taking out the bed/couch and there was enough room next to the waterheater (so I didn't have to remove it) to do the repair. I used 3 stainless steel machine bolts (added one more) with a piece of 18 gauge sheetmetal 2"x10" for a backing plate.

 

[PopRichie77]

Glad to hear you got it fixed, some of the other guide rail screws could probably be fixed the same way.